July 2014

What I like about white the best is the visual simplicity rendered by the illusion that I am surrounded by space rather than walls and objects.

In my world, white is best mixed with natural elements that have their own non-color color, like wood, leather, steel, fur, jute, plants, etc. All in a non-fussy, low-maintenance, I don't know, neither cluttered nor museum-perfection manner. Kind of just letting them mix the way they want to mix.

Besides their aesthetics, my favorite quality of imperfect, distressed furniture (as well as imperfect walls and floors) is that accidental scratches and marks don't ruin them. Like good jeans, the more wear the better.

(Dining room pictures ending here, moving over to the living room)

My hands down favorite element of the living area is the water view (which I managed not to capture) and the amount of light coming in.

(As a side note: a rather common question female visitors tend to point at me is whether it's a nightmare to keep white furniture clean. Funny how guys never ask that. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but the answer is no, as long as the upholstery is removable and washable, which I think any upholstery, white or not, should be anyway. The same goes for white sheets and towels, so much easier to add bleach to the wash to get rid of the occasional mascara-stain than it would be with any other color. That being said, whatever the color, an extra set of the removable upholstery purchased from the manufacturer is of course common sense. Guess my only advice is if you have to bleach, which most of the time I don't, then make sure all pieces are in the same wash to avoid getting one of them a slightly different shade of white.)

Don't have more living area photos, there's really just a fire place, a TV and a few windows missing. Moving over to the powder room next.

Not much to show here.

(The fern needs a trim, I know.)

OK, this post is getting way longer than foreseen, so I'll leave the remaining areas (kitchen, entrance and patio downstairs, then my bedroom, bathroom, balcony, tiny guest bed & bath, my office and some open landing areas upstairs) for another time.

(If anyone is even interested that is. In essence it's really just more rooms of the same style).

Don't know if it's a good thing or not but I've hardly been spending any time online lately. Nor have I read a book in ages. Not a conscious choice by any means (though the World Cup didn't help), yet can't help but enjoy these occasional low key/passive spells while they last.

Guess the nice thing about these involuntary recharging periods is this sudden contention with just the way things are… you know, when for some reason everything seems good enough -- even fulfilling.

Hope everyone is having a great Summer and enjoying the perfection that is champagne mangoes (best thing about Summer). I am about to watch the prequel to The Planet of the Apes (the one that just came out was so good!).

Would much rather be watching the US winning the World Cup, but I guess after all, not everything about this Summer is perfect.